Jim Hendry Signs Four Year Extension

We talked about it the other day, so nothing to really add except that it is offical, Jim Hendry has been extended through the 2012 season.

Donuts for everyone....

Tags: 
Cubs Front Office
Jim Hendry
Submitted by Rob G. on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 2:00pm
Return to Homepage

Comments

Submitted by Cubster
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 2:27pm

Glendon Rusch sez: WHOOPIE!!! (anytime there's a free round of donuts)

Submitted by MikeC
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 2:29pm

I dont want Real Neal to ignore it so i will put it up here...

-edit--

on the other hand, the rest of us are kind of tired about it and that's why we have threaded comments.

http://thecubreporter.com/2008/10/16/jim-hendry-cl...

here's the comment, please keep it there MikeC and Neal and whomever else wants to chime in...

Thanks
(Rob G.)

Submitted by mannytrillo
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 2:31pm

Teflon Jim survives again!!! Go Cubs!!

Submitted by Mister Whipple
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 3:44pm

I see your sig and I send you my sig back. Please let this be your one comment on the matter. It gets so old. If you can't contain your kvetching, maybe you could find another place to post.

Submitted by John Beasley
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 3:23pm

I said he should lose his job if the Cubs failed to win the pennant.

I retract but remain skeptical that he'll be here four more years.

Good luck, Jim, and no more heart attacks please.

Submitted by The E-Man
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 4:07pm

Hendry made almost all the right moves in this nearly-magical 2008 season. It is unfortunate that the team monumentally choked when it really mattered. This is hard to assess blame on him for the failure.

Submitted by Tito
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 4:17pm

Three division titles in six years, with an increased level of talent the last two (going along with a higher payroll). Yet "Teflon Jim survives." We all want a World Series title, but it clearly isn't as easy as wishing for it. Hendry's done his job quite well.

Submitted by HendryIsClueLess
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 4:28pm

If we dont have the right assets to land Jake Peavy, then Hendry is a failure as a GM. Haren, Sabathia, Santana have all been dealt and we didnt have the right players in the farm system to barter with. If that isnt an indictment on the GM, i dont know what is?

Maybe take 3 of the Felix Pie experiment will work out next year.

Submitted by crunch
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 4:36pm

edit:

If _________ (fill in blank) then Hendry is a failure as a GM.

Hendry is the ( ) worst ( ) most awful ( ) most dreadful GM in the game.

That time he __________ (fill in failure event) was the most idiotic thing i've ever seen in my life. I don't know how any of you ( ) people ( ) idiots ( ) people who steal my precious oxygen can stand to put up with this guy.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 4:53pm

*golf clap*

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 4:35pm

So there were only three good GM's in all of baseball, two of which didn't make the post-season.

I agree 100%, though, someone is 'ClueLess'.

Submitted by VirginiaPhil
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 4:54pm

He had the assets to land Jake Peavy, but he already traded them to Oakland. (I'm referring, not to Murton and Patterson, but to the other three guys including Blevins.)

You could trade Vitters for Peavy right now--but please don't!

I also like slow-cooking assets like Felix Pie.

The Rays made good use of an "asset" last night. They made him an instant closer, in game 7 of the ALCS. That worked out okay.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:06pm

was there another starting pitcher or middle infielder traded to the A's besides Gallagher, since you discounted Eric Patterson?

cause the Padres want young, controllable starting pitching and a middle infielder...at least.

Peavy's damn good and all, but there's a lot of worries about his health everyone should be having and what he'll pitch like when he leaves Petco. He has a 3.80 road ERA for his career.

trust me, i'd love to have him, but he's no slam dunk...I don't think there's any pitcher that is except maybe Johan Santana or mid to late 90's Pedro Martinez

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:13pm

I'd take Webb.

Submitted by 10man
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 7:39pm

I'd have taken him too until he became as flukey as Zambrano late this year. It's probably just a dead arm but there might be something to look into there healthwise.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:12pm

The Rays have had more #1 overall picks (four) in their 10 years of existance than the Cubs have had in their 44 years of drafting. Since they've started playing they've never had a pick outside of the top 10. Their team this year is similiar to the Brewers in that way. Get enough top 50 picks for 10 years in a row and you should have some good players.

Submitted by billybucks
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 8:47am

Agreed -- but, the Red Sox (Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester et al) seem to be doing OK with their youth.

Submitted by Cubster
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:02pm

The Rays made good use of an "asset" last night.
===============
It's been done before, as recently as: Adam Wainwright in 2006...and Beckett in 2003 was a variant of that as well.

Submitted by HendryIsClueLess
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:19pm

I dont understand how you guys can support Jim Hendry so much. This guy has done very little based on the assets he has to work with.

Signing Free Agents with a fist full of money does not make a great GM, if you do that to fill out a roster based on the foundation that you have put together, maybe. And yes ARam and DLee were great deals in 03, and 04 for teams that had economic issues and Hendry was able to put deals together for them. I think Ted Lilly, and Derosa were good signings as well. Resigning ARAM and DLEE were also good moves and Signing Lou as well.

Does getting Edmonds classify a great move? Or was it a failure that Pie couldnt play?

What about Neifi, Glendon Rusch in 06.

Keeping Dusty around in 06.

Nomar, Juan Pierre, Jacque Jones (Who he had to pay someone to take).

These are all lousy lousy moves. I could go on and on and the farm system as well.

If hendry's working 14 hour days, he should start working more.

Is anyone really surprised that a RH dominated lineup came back to roost?

Or Soriano didn't do jack vs a pitching staff that pitched him carefully?

Or Dempster choked in a big spot (we know he didnt like pitching the 9th)?

I didnt want to think it would happen, but it did and i was concerned about it in April, but the regular season made me think this team would overcome those things. I guess I was wrong about that and right about Hendry.

He gets a free pass in this town, because we were so bad before and the media loves him cause he's so accessible and a likeable guy.

The guy didnt buy into OBP until Lou got here. Come on!!

Submitted by crunch
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:30pm

mostly cuz a noticable chunk of us don't count some of your criticisms as big deals compared to the "other stuff" he's done.

hell...some of that stuff in your rant i dont even slightly buy into, myself. i have no idea where you get the idea about some of your assumptions, too.

i hear your side and all. it just doesn't sell me anything.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:31pm

Are you for real?

"Derosa were good signings as well. Resigning ARAM and DLEE were also good moves and Signing Lou as well....Is anyone really surprised that a RH dominated lineup came back to roost?"

Quit contradicting yourself.

Everyone who loses in the playoffs says 'The Playoffs are a crapshoot'. To a certain extent they are. You think that The Angels should fire their GM too? The Red Sox?

Submitted by VirginiaPhil
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 11:36am

The Angels-Sox series was a crapshoot. Cubs-Dodgers didn't rise to that level.

The Angels won game three on the road and might have won game 4 if a good bunter hadn't missed a squeeze in the ninth. To find a close call that made a difference in the Cubs-Dodgers series, you'd have to rehash Loney's foul tip in the fifth inning of the first game. The Cubs had no pulse after that.

So I'm temperamentally allied with HendryIsClueless, but I still go back and forth on Hendry. I like the organization he has built: Wilken and Fleita . . . Sandberg, Davis and Listach . . . Riggins, Llewallyn, Joshua. And of course Lou. All of this could be outweighed by disastrous free-agent signings, but I thought Soriano was better this year than last, and I have a hard time believing that Fukudome is a bum. It really is possible for a 31-year-old veteran to hit a rookie wall. I can live with this GM.

Submitted by mannytrillo
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 11:41am

The Real Neal:
"You think that The Angels should fire their GM too? The Red Sox?"

The Red Sox GM has won a WS 2 of the last 4 years. So no, he shouldn't be fired.

Submitted by navigator
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 6:27pm

Since you mention it HendryIsClueLess, a balanced LH/RH batting order is one of the few things I've found so far that correlates with winning a pennant this year.

Here's a breakdown (RH-LH-SH batters)

NL

*Phils 7-5-2
Dodgers 9-4-1

Brewers 8-4-1
Cubs 9-5

AL

*Rays 5-5-4
Red Sox 5-6-3

White Sox 8-5-1
Angels 8-1-6

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/rosters?sortCo...

The two teams with the most balanced lineups in their respective league playoffs won the pennant.

Also correlating with advancing to the playoffs and winning a pennant were stable healthy low-turnover rotations and pitching staffs using fewer RHP's than average.

Submitted by HendryIsClueLess
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:36pm

Its a crapshoot if you win a game.

This year's team choked.

2007 was just not that good. Overachieved to win 85 games, thanks to Lou not Hendry.

Submitted by Bleeding Blue
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 1:09pm

I'm still trying to figure out how the GM doesn't deserve credit for building a team that won the most games in the league during the regular season, but gets the blame for players that "choked" by losing a 3 game series.

And I guess the opposite is also true, as to why Lou would get the credit for the regular season but not the blame for choking in a short series. I just don't get that.

A GM builds the team for the long haul, and clearly he did that. Other than making sure that the team has solid starting pitching (and yes, Z, Harden, Dempster, and Lilly is a solid rotation), how exactly is a GM supposed to build a team for a 5 game series?

Submitted by Timmer
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:47pm

Won 28 - 1 today over the Surprise Rafters. (No doubt they were surprised.)

Spears, Clevenger and Barney were a combined 8 for 16 with 3 RBI and 11 runs scored.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:58pm

That's going to make a long day at the ballpark, especially for the Rafters. It would be cool if Barney became a useful hitter. Our guys pitched 8 innings of one run ball too (Estrada, Cardidad, Veal, Roquet).

Submitted by Timmer
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 7:10pm

Spears has started quickly in the AFL -- .455 / .556 / .682 -- and has played a few innings at short. Maybe AZ Phil can let us know how he's looked there and how he matches up with Fontenot.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 7:31pm

Nate "Sam Fuld" Spears!!!!

I keed.

Submitted by navigator
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:59pm

Kewl! Getting swept in the NLDS doesn't hurt so much anymore....

Submitted by VirginiaPhil
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 11:44am

Speaking of Mesa, Tyler Colvin has not been in a box score for a week. Anyone know why?

Submitted by 10man
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 7:53pm

Hendry has made his fair share of mistakes (Just like any other GM now or in history), but the true test of how good a GM is whether the team wins or not. 3 division titles in the last 6 seasons. You can't argue with that. Hendry did have a big part to play in that, along with Lou, the players, the trainers, the coaches, the grounds crew, etc. It's a team, and it took a total team effort to win. Hendry is the leader so it is only natural to see him get most of the attention for what happens.

The thing about leaders is this:
They get too much of the credit for good things happening and too much of the criticism for bad things happening. Human nature.

Submitted by HendryIsClueLess
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 10:45pm

More of the same from Hendry:

"We feel Felix is going to be a good player," Hendry said. "You're talking about a 23-year-old kid. He'll be an out-of-options player. Without any kind of injury or significant change, he'll have a very good chance to make the ballclub out of Spring Training."

Submitted by HendryIsClueLess
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 10:51pm

How many OFs can we carry? Fukudome, Pie, and Reed Johnson are already penciled in as non-starters...things that make you go hmmmm...

This team next year will either suck it up and repeat and get past the 1st round or completely suck from day 1. I dont see any middle ground.

Hopefully Soriano is batting 5th or 6th, Fukudome is the leadoff hitter or 2nd, Pie learns to hit ML pitching and Dempster stays on the same workout program he was on during his contract year.

Lets hope they feel they have lots to prove.

Submitted by crunch
on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 11:02pm

your assumptions don't work given how the team will most likely approach things...

fukudome will most likely start if healthy pending a spring training meltdown. pie/r.johnson are the CF "platoon" as of now (but hell, it could be a.jones or some crazy shit by the time spring comes around).

Submitted by Chad
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 1:30am

can we work the dodgers to get Andruw? I think he'll be a little more motivated next year. IIRC he signed a two year deal with the dodgers. He knows that if he stinks it up that he won't be getting much of a contract after the year is up.

Can we get them to pay half?

Submitted by 10man
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 1:46am

The Dodgers would probably pay ALL if we take Pierre off their hands :)

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 7:29pm

He stunk it up his last year with the Braves, didn't he?

Submitted by Chad
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 8:03pm

true. but you buy low, right?

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 9:33pm

I am sure they'd be willing to pay half of his contract to any team that wants him. I don't know that he does us much good. Best case he hits like Soriano, and we already have too many strikeout prone right handed slugger types.

Submitted by Chad
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 11:35pm

we don't have a big bat on the bench (right handed). he could be that. also, if he hit like soriano did, then that would be the greatest move ever.

if he could hit .280 .344 .532 , he's a steal at 9 million.

Submitted by crunch
on Wed, 10/22/2008 - 12:06am

a.jones has already laid out the "play me everyday or trade me" demand.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 10/22/2008 - 6:55pm

But then goes 1-12 with 7 strikeouts in the postseason?

Submitted by Chad
on Wed, 10/22/2008 - 7:06pm

neal, if there is one person on this board who wouldn't believe in a 'post season choke player', it's you.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 10/22/2008 - 8:08pm

No, but I do believe in lineup balance and certain types of hitters matching up better against certain pitchers.

Soriano and Jones are both mistake hitters - they very rarely hit a 'pitcher's pitch' anywhere. Lee and Ramirez, for example, can take those the other way and do some damage.

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 11:08pm

fwiw...i have heard nothing, not even a rumor, about a.jones/chc...

just saying...

X
You may login with either your assigned username or your e-mail address.
The password field is case sensitive.
Loading